THE NEW BEGINNING

In the Bible, 8 is the number of new beginnings, and in Genesis 8 we see the elements of the New Beginning that God promised Noah and the rest of mankind.

Let’s examine the elements of a new beginning.

1. Praise

The first element of a new beginning is praise.

Genesis 8:20–21a “And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour;

The first thing Noah did when he came out the Ark was to lead his family in worship as Noah built an altar.

I was shocked to discover this, but in the Bible, Noah is the first person to build an altar. As part of the new beginning, Noah knew he needed to worship God. In Hebrew, altar means a place of slaughter.

Unlike our cathedrals of worship today, the altar was a dreadful place. It was a fearful place as those who were offering the sacrifice is the one who deserved to die, and I say, dear friend, that most of us would be better served if we looked more often upon the altar where you and I deserved to die, but One took our place.

If we did that, we might worship as Noah did. The Bible clearly teaches us that because we are sinners that we not only deserve death but we are going to die. The dreadful sight of the altars in the Old Testament would make the skin crawl. It was awful, bloody, smelly scene.

Noah knew he should have died. He knew he should have met humanity’s fate, but he did not because of God’s grace.

Genesis 6:8 “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

Noah did nothing. It was God who showered him with His grace. He was saved by God, and the first opportunity he had, he worshipped God for what God had done for him. Listen. God is worthy of our worship because of the grace he has shown to all of us.

I want you to notice something, and I am not going to get to technical. You must remember, and I have said it often. Jesus can be found throughout the Bible, and all new beginnings are made possible by Jesus Christ.

It was Jesus Christ who made Noah’s new beginning possible. What?

If you notice in Genesis 8:20, LORD is in all caps. In the Old Testament, when you see LORD in all caps, it is called the tetragrammaton. It is the unknowable, unspeakable name of God.

Exodus 3:14 “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

John 8:58 “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”

Who is it that makes God knowable? JESUS CHRIST!!!

Noah, in type, is worshipping Jesus for his salvation. Every altar in the Old Testament points toward the ultimate sacrifice which was Jesus Christ. He is the One who died in our place. Every sacrifice in the Old Testament pointed to the ultimate sacrifice offered by God as He offered His Son.

Romans 8:32 “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

Jesus was innocent. I was guilty, but He became my guilt, so I could be innocent of the charges against me.

Romans 5:6–9 “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

Nothing Noah could do would justify him before God, and he knew it. He knew his salvation was based upon God’s grace, and the ultimate show of that grace was crucifying His own Son on the Cross of Calvary. There are no more sacrifices to be made. It is Jesus who made a one-time perpetual offering for my sin and all sin.

Because of that, He is worthy of our worship. It is Jesus who makes God knowable. It is Jesus who will deliver us from the storms of life. It is Jesus who will deliver us safely to our final destination.

Do you worship God for His grace? Do you know what you deserved? If we focus on what we deserve, we would be more inclined to worship God for what He did, but many of us act like we deserved what God did for us, and as a result, many of us bounce back and forth between the different storms in our lives.

The first element of the new beginning is worship.

2. POSTERITY

Genesis 8:15–18 “And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him:”

God saved Noah and his family, but He did not intend for them to stay on the Ark forever. He had a mission for them. In the same way, God does not want you to stand pat on your salvation.

Many people get saved from the storm by entering the Ark, but they never leave the Ark, but God never intended for you to “rest” upon your salvation.

Mark 16:15 “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

God told Noah to go forth, and Jesus tells us to go into the world. Salvation is the first step. Noah obeyed God’s command, and so are you and I to obey the same command.

Let me show you how the beginning looked, and how it is supposed to look in your life.

A. Noah followed God’s commands.

Noah stayed on the Ark until God commanded him to leave it.

Genesis 8:15–16 “And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.”

Noah was waiting on God and was receptive to God’s commands. Think about it. Noah did not go into the Ark until God told him to do so, and he was not coming off it until God told him to come off of it. Noah did not leave on his own. He waited on God, and dear friend, what do you think we are to do?

Exodus 14:14 “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”

Ecclesiastes 7:8 “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”

You will never get in trouble if you stay behind God. You get in trouble when you get out in front of God. We are to move on God’s command and not before.

Joshua 3:3 “And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.”

Do you know who the Ark of the Covenant symbolizes? Jesus Christ. What is the message? When Jesus moves or commands us to move, we are to move.

We are to move when God commands us and not before, and that means in every aspect in your life. God is either God of everything in your life, or He is the God of nothing in your life.

B. Noah led his home spiritually.

Genesis 8:15–16 “And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.”

Genesis 8:18 “And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him:”

Noah obeyed God’s commands, and he made sure his family obeyed them too, and ladies and gentlemen, this is where the crumbling of society begins.

Husbands/fathers have the biblical responsibility to be the spiritual leader of the home, and that responsibility is theirs until con no longer honor it or until they die.

I am absolutely sure that Ham, Shem, and Japheth were dying to get off the Ark to take their wives out for a night on the town, but they did not because they were waiting for direction from their spiritual leader, Noah.

I am about to be labeled as being a way-out-there Bible conservative.

Genesis 2:24 “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

Eve was taken from Adam, and Eve completed Adam, and every person has their Adam or Eve that completes them. I was talking to someone the other day about this, and I told him that the reason so many initial marriages end in divorce is because people married someone that did not complete him or her, and here is where the role of the father being spiritual leader should come to bear.

As fathers, we teacher our children to do everything under the sun, but for one thing. Very few take active part in the dating lives of their children, and it is in that area that children need to receive the most spiritual guidance. Can you imagine never teaching a child how to drive, and then suddenly, as soon as the child turns 16, tell them to take the vehicle and do anything they want?

I am telling you that you parents who have children growing up that are Christians, especially the fathers, have a responsibility to your children to see that they date other Christians. You have the responsibility to be the parent, and men that responsibility falls primarily on you and me.

Noah’s sons were old enough to be married. Ham’s wife was expecting a child or had a child while they were on the Ark, yet Noah’s sons waited on spiritual guidance from their father, Noah. One of the most overlooked aspect of Noah as father is found in the fact that he found wives for his three sons who were godly young women. How do I know that? Because all of their wives entered the salvation provided by God.

Noah took his responsibility seriously, and he guided his three sons toward finding three godly women to marry, and dear friend, as fathers, we have that same spiritual responsibility. As a result of Noah upholding his spiritual responsibility, in the new beginning, God commanded Noah’s sons and wives to be fruitful and to multiply. They were given the responsibility to share God with the world.

3. PROMISE

Genesis 8:21–22 “.....I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

As part of the new beginning, God made three incredible promises to mankind.

God would not curse the ground again for man’s sake.

God had cursed the ground for Adam’s sake after Adam sinned.

In Genesis 3:17, God tells Adam that the ground would be cursed for Adam’s sake. God knew that if the ground remained as it was in the Garden of Eden that man would never rely on Him. Man would never consider God, so God cursed the ground for Adam’s sake and not for his punishment.

After the Flood, God promised that He would not place another curse on the ground.

2. God would not judge every living thing as He did with the Flood.

This is interesting. I have read Genesis 8:21-22 at least 20 times in the last two or three weeks, and I believe the Holy Spirit finally penetrated my thick skull and opened my eyes to the reality of what His Word is saying.

a. Judgment or the threat of judgment will not change man’s nature.

Genesis 8:21 says this: for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth

God says that even after the Flood, when man gets old enough to choose, he will always, in his nature, choose to sin, and judgment or the threat of judgment will not change that nature.

Noah and his family were on the Ark close to a year, and not soon after disembarking from the Ark. Noah got drunk, and Ham violated his father by looking on his father’s nakedness. Ham and Noah were saved from judgment, but soon after the Flood, the evil imaginations of their hearts and minds were working overtime.

Noah is no different than you and me in this sense. Noah did not save himself.

Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”

Genesis 6:8 “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

Noah was saved because of God’s grace through faith. God’s grace was on display by God choosing Noah and providing salvation to Noah. Noah faith was on display as he entered into the salvation God provided.

God says that man’s heart is evil from his youth. Nothing will ever change that fact. If man was ever going to be right with God, it would be God who would make him right, and that is exactly why God sent His Son into the world.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Romans 8:32 “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

In His grace, God sent His Son and crucified His Son. In faith, you must accept His gift if you want to be saved.

b. God’s has an eternal plan for a chosen people.

This is what the Holy Spirit revealed to me, and I felt stupid after I saw what God’s Word is saying. The Bible says “neither again will I smite anymore every living thing.”

We know that God is saying that He will not destroy by Flood again, but I want you to notice what else He is showing us.

God is showing us that going forward He would have a covenant people who would belong to Him forever.

Who is that covenant people?

His covenant people is Israel.

Yes, this earth is going to be judged again, but not every living thing will be judged as a remnant of Israel will be saved from judgment in order to claim its promised inheritance.

Every nation is going to be judged and completely destroyed except for Israel, and one of the first references to that fact is found in Genesis 8:21.

Not only will Israel be saved, so will the church, the Bride of Christ.

If you are saved, Genesis 8:21 is talking about you.

1 Thessalonians 5:9–10 “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.”

1 Thessalonians 4:14–17 “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

Those of us who are saved have the promise from God that we will not go through the judgment to come. That does not mean that we will not go through trials, tribulations, and persecutions. It means that we not be judged for our sin because our sin was judged on Calvary.

Genesis 8:21 continues the theme started in Genesis 3:15. It is river of redemption that flows through the blood-soaked doors of Egypt, to the scarlet thread of Rahab, to Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace, to the blood-stained hill at Calvary, and down to you and me if you are saved.

Looking down through the pages of history, God could promise, because He knows the end from the beginning, that never again would every living thing be judged. AMEN!!!!!!

c. God has the Creation in His hands.

Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

Ecclesiastes 1:9 “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”

Matthew 5:45 “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

Since the Flood, do you know what we have had?

We have had summer, winter, spring, and fall, we have had day and night, and we have had planting and harvesting. We have had sunrise and sunset, and guess what we are going to have until the judgment begins?

Do you know why? Because in Genesis 8:22, as part of the new beginning, God told Noah the seasons would come and go and days and nights would come and go. Climate activists put that in your pipe and give it to a tree. LOL!!!

Colossians 1:17 “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

God holds everything in creation together, and He is going to until the Great Tribulation begins. It is a promise that He made about 4,500 years ago. Climate activists are like blind squirrels chasing after a nut. Instead of embracing science, I will cling to God’s Word.

What a new beginning God gave Noah. It was that new beginning under which we are still living. Noah’s new beginning will be in place until God judges man and this world for sin.